19.1, INTRODUCTION
     This chapter will go back to the years in the 70's and early 80's prior to my retirement from full-time work at C.N. in 1984. Fran and I were of course still living in Beaconsfield but our extended family was living in such disparate places as Vancouver, B.C., Kentville and Bridgewater, N.S., San Diego, Cal., Boston, Mass. and of course my mother still lived in Rivers and the Walkers in Winnipeg. So to keep in touch we had to do quite a bit of travelling, making use of  trains, planes and automobiles as appropriate. As families move on into new generations it becomes more difficult for us to keep up with all the details so this account of ours will only try to hit the highlights with apologies for overlooking many achievements which we have forgotten or not been aware of.

19.2, TRIPS TO THE WEST COAST TO VISIT MY FAMILY
     With my sister Mary and her family living in Langley, B.C., brother Bill and his family in North Vancouver and my own three children having gravitated to the Vancouver area at various times you will realize that the west coast became a necessary and popular place for us to visit. As we usually went in the summer we enjoyed outdoor eating at gatherings with Bill and June and their family and outdoor eating and swimming at Mary and Jim's where they had a nice pool. It has been of continuing interest to see how Niece Janice and her husband Steve Sylvester, have raised a great family in 100-Mile House where Steve has become General Manager of Ainsworth Lumber. This company has been very successful at developing the new strandboard made from lumber wastes. They have also done well in making those lumber sizes favored by the Japanese market to which they export a great deal of product. Mary's eldest daugthter, Leslie and her husband Barry Gaudette had been living in Edmonton, but moved to Ottawa where they still reside (2001). Barry has built quite a career with the R.C.M.P. with his knowledge of the  new identification system based on microscopic examination of  a suspect's DNA from materials found at the crime scene. Barry has travelled widely to conferences, etc. on the use of this system and has also for example gone to the U.S.A. to confirm evidence given in their courts depending upon DNA identification. Leslie has utilized her educational and other qualifications to do important work in the Dominon Bureau of  Statistics where, among other things, she has had charge of the section responsible for the gathering and interpretation of cancer statistics. She has proven herself to be a most capable person to have around.
     Maria showed her mettle in dealing with her experience on the ranch and also on our visit in 1978 where she was earning income managing the restaurant at the Squire Moor Inn in Coquitlam. After her divorce from John Fuller which we had mentioned in an earlier chapter she also worked for an herbal store near the foot of Main Street but later became a successful distribution representative, first working for Lipton's Tea company but later moved to a better position with Pepsi-Cola. She had been encouraged by her then husband, Ken Peterson to seek some of these positions. LIke Leslie, Maria has also become a capable person who is a joy to have around. On one of our visits we had the pleasure of getting Robin and Jim playing their guitars accompanied by Maria on her mandolin?. (See photo).
     In December 1983, Maria married Ken Peterson and we were able to come out for the wedding. To get there we took VIA's Canadian right across the country from Montreal. It was an epic journey of winter railroading and from our vantage point of  riding the dome car and listening in on the rear brakeman's radio so we were able to catch all the highlights. It was warm weather when we left Montreal but this dropped overnight so that it was 30 below when we reached Sudbury. This sudden drop played hob with the all-welded rail and during our journey we had over 30 rail pull-aparts due to contraction of the steel. If these are passed over at low speed there is no danger of derailment, but all had slow orders which caused a cumulative delay. At Kenora we had engine problems, then the trainline froze up in the bitter breeze sweeping across the elevated track in Winnipeg station. More delay to thaw it out, and that not too well done by local carmen, so the job had to be done over under C.P. direction at Brandon. Next, one of our VIA diesels failed coming into Medecine Hat and C.P. added a freight engine to move the train, leaving  the VIA diesels in the consist to supply steam for heating the train. On board, Fran and I were suffering inconvenience from the fact that our washroom facilities were frozen and we had to use those in other cars. Going through the rockies in the vicinity of the spiral tunnels the Centralized Traffic Control signalling system was out of order so we had to proceed by phone authority at reduced speed. Early in the night, when we stopped at North Bend, a C.P. division point, we were told that the steam heating boilers were all shut down and sure enough, we felt the train was getting cold! The day was saved because the C.P. conductor knew there was a local engineman who had good knowledge of these boilers; he was called out of his bed and came down where he was able to rectify the problem and send us on our way, many hours late. Once we left North Bend we started to descend into the warmer coastal climate and while we slept peacefully, everything got thawed out by mother nature. Nor did we have to detrain when we arrived at Vancouver in the middle of the night, over 24 hours late; all passengers were allowed to stay on the train until morning. What an epic of Canadian winter railroading it had been! I often wonder what kinds of winter problems they have to-day (2001) where the trains are electically heated but still need reliable head end diesel power to provide the electricity!
     Getting back to Maria and Ken's wedding it went off well and we had a lot of fun at the reception afterwards. Ken's mother, Louise was one of those great people who could sit down at the piano and  play all kinds of popular songs by ear. She entertained us royally and we had a great Christmas sing-song. The highlight was a beautiful singing rendition of a favorite carol by a young niece of Ken's!
      On  one of our summer trips to the West, Mary and sons Jim and Norman took us on a lovely daytime picnic trip in Jim's power boat, starting out from Mud Bay in Surrey and stopping in a sheltered cove near one of the Gulf Islands. The boat was good, but the boys eventually sold it as they found it consumed too much gas. On the same visit west we were also introduced to the famous Royal Hudson steam locomotive trip from North Vancouver to Squamish and back. On that particular day the train was pulled by the relief loco, ex-CP no. 3716, but on other rides after we got to the coast we made trips behind the Royal Hudson herself. She is a beautifully kept engine (see photo) and has been the only steam locomotive of her kind still active. Unfortunately, as I write these words in 2001, her future is in doubt because of her needing a new boiler, so 3716 is carrying on alone.

19.3, VISIT TO THE HOLY LAND, EGYPT AND JORDAN
     In addition to family and roots based travels, some of which we have just described, we have taken vacations in various overseas countries. While they are not cast in any particular pattern we chose some in order to visit those parts of the world which we felt contributed to our history and tradition as Canadians. This would include visits to  England, Ireland, Scotland, France, from whence Fran and my principal ancestral strains migrated to Canada. In addition, because we are both Christians and Canada  and our society is interwoven through and through with the religion and references to it we had a great desire to visit the Biblical Holy Lands. Basically these included Israel, Jordan, Turkey and Egypt, and of course the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome.
     To visit all of these places we booked a three week tour in the late fall of 1980 travelling by air or by bus as appropriate. Dealing first with ancient Egypt we were greatly impressed with the temple of Luxor, the ruins of Abu Simbel (which had to be moved piece by piece to higher ground and rebuilt so that the sun would shine into the depths of the building and light up the Pharoah's face on a certain day in February). I was also impressed by the roadway at Luxor lined with dozens of carved stone animals, all identical. A girl whom I knew at university, whose family was well-off enough to travel in those far off depressions days, once showed me a photo of these animals, and that had created the long ago desire to travel and see them for myself. Perhaps the highlight, however, was the jouney across the Nile to visit the Valley of the Kings and visit the tomb of  King Tutakhamen which was not discovered by moderns until 1921. It promoted quite serious thoughts to look upon the burial mask of this person who lived far before the coming of Christianity.  It was a sober moment similar to when we gazed upon the great pyramid of Ghiza and realized that it had been there long before even old testament Abraham was in Egypt!  I was of course impressed as an engineer wit the type of monolithic stone construction practised by the Pharoahs who just used heavy stone beams on short spans, not apparently having developed the arch for their architecture. Photos in our album show some of the scenes we visited.
     We flew from Cairo to Amman, the capital of  Jordan. The highlight of the city was that nearly all the taxis were Mercedes. As these cars are considered expensive in North America we wondered how they could be available for the humblest of taxi-drivers here. The story given is that they were purchased in Germany, where the law is strict and forces the retirement of older cars after a few years which makes them available at low price for export to foreign countries.
     One main impression in Jordan was to visit the site of ancient Jericho, where in Biblical times a great trumpet blast had brought the walls tumbling down. However, the sight which most piqued our interest was to gaze down into a deep excavation where they had discovered an ancient foundation for a well or cistern and had established that this marked the location as having been one of the earliest civilizations where man had ceased to be a nomadic hunter and gatherer and had settled down in a town over 10,000 years ago!
     To get into Israel, we had to cross the Allenby bridge. We thought that such a famous structure would be huge and impressive, whereas, in fact it was nothing but a non-descript temporary Bailey bridge of World War II vintage! The interesting thing about this crossing was that it was our first face to face contact with the fact that relations between Israel and the Arab world amounted to a state of war. It required the best part of the day to go through extensive security measures such as showing passports twice, operating our camera shutters to prove they were not secret guns, etc. Any Arabs crossing, as some were on that day had to completely empty their suitcases on the parking lot. Machine guns and tanks were present on both sides of the bridge, at the ready at all times in case someone's military unit came along to fight their way across.
     Once in Israel we visited many biblical sites such as Nazareth. I remember a beautiful church there with lovely mosaic decoration on the walls all around. We visited the Sea of Galilee and ate fish said to be the same breed as the disciples caught. It was interesting to visit places like Nablus and see the ancient ways of life still common there, things such as women carrying wash baskets, shopping baskets and water jugs on their heads, all still dressed in clothing which to us seemed the same as the pictures we had seen as children in Sunday School. Also, we found the elevated desert plateau,  Masada, very interesting. It was here that a group of Jewish people were anihilated by Roman soldiers in pre-Christian times.
     Jerusalem itself was of course the gem of the trip; one could almost sense its varied history of change and strife throughout the ages. While little of the actual city of Christ's time remains there is still much to see relating to all of the great faiths, Christianity, Judaism and Muslim. For we Christians there is still the Mount of Olives, the garden of Gethsemane and  possible locations of  the Last Supper and His temporary tomb. For old testament places there is the wailing wall, which is all that remains of Solomon's great temple. This is much revered by the Jewish people, who actively visit there to pray and stuff little messages or requests into the cracks between the stones of the ancient wall. We were very much impressed by a visit to the "Home of the Book", a museum which has been specially created to shelter and display the ancient scrolls discovered a few years ago in a cave. The main scroll, centrally displayed was part of the book of the prophet Isaiah and Fran and I were greatly interested to learn that this scroll gave an account very similar to that contained in to-day's bibles, thus adding much to the veracity of old testament scriptures. Not far away, for Muslims, there is the Dome on the Rock. Surely this is one of the most beautiful buildings in the whole world. It's colorful mosaics in geometric designs, both inside and outside the temple with the golden dome glistening in the sun are purely fantastic! The newer part of the city, largely built since the Jewish takeover after World War II is also impressive, partly because of the extensive use of a pink colored stone. Here I was impressed by the cemetery where casualties of the wars are buried; it particularly impressed me that their naval veterans tombs are beneath  shallow water pools.
     The sad part is that the often violent struggles between Jew and Arab still continue, and are visible in many ways. For instance, a bus tour driver took us on the road to Damascus. He had served his time in the army as most Jews must, so he used his knowledge to make a sharp turn and proceed down a side road, at the bottom of which was an army camp whose occupants had the job of protecting the main road should the Syrians use it to come down to attack Jerusalem. We got quite a shock to have our bus faced with guns of some tanks with gun crews scrambling to man them as we arrived there! Similarly, at Tel Aviv we were introduced to the phemomenon of continuous patrol of the beach by army jeeps and the water offshore by military planes. A massacre had occurred here some time back in which Arab commandos had come by boat and massacred the passengers on a bus on the nearby highway!
     Fran and I often talk of our Holy Land trip. We agree it was the most interesting of any of the great trips we have taken. At the time we were there, the military hostilities were not so bad as they are in danger of becoming to-day (Feb., 2001).  After many attempts at diplomacy over the years, there is no lasting solution in sight and it is such a pity. In relating the highlights here, there is much more we experienced, but to tell it all would make a book. It is still a trip that everyone should take!

19.4, TRIP TO GREECE AND ASIA MINOR
     This trip, which we took in October 1979 is also part of this chapter because we look upon Greece as a part of  the heritage of our western civilization. It of course made an interesting trip and although we took in a great deal, I will continue my aim for this account to mention only those things which made a special impression on Fran and I. As I am mainly recalling from memory things may not be in the same order as they happened, but this should give no offence to the reader.
     We did a bus and land tour first and saw many of the classic sights and drank in the history which they represent. The acropolis in Athens, must of course stand out and I still recall the thrill we had, when seated near the front of the bus we glimpsed it from a distance as the bus came over a rise in the road. Later, we saw many classic ruins and an amphitheatre. The streets in downtown Athens were terribly crowded and not too attractive. Because of an excess of motor traffic the trolley buses only proceeded in a slow lineup through that area. Some of the better homes in outlying towns we found to be quite attractive in their pure white exteriors trimmed with blue. We saw the place where the original Olympic Games had begun. An outport we visited was quite a peaceful fishing town; I can recall the older men sitting by the harbor in the evening enjoying a smoke and a drink in the lovely cool of the sunset time. (See Photos).
     We took a ship called the Jason from the Port of Piraeus and proceeded up the Aegean Sea to Istanbul. This city was part of early Christianity and was named Constantinople up to the 15th century when it was captured by the Turks. We saw the famous and beautiful Blue Mosque and also the church of Saint Sophia. I particularly wanted to see this latter one because it is architecturally noteworthy in having the largest clear span masonry dome in the world and it was built in th 14th century! I was somewhat disappointed however in the fact that the interior had been converted to a mosque. This meant that all the original decorative art and statuary had been removed by the muslims with nothing left to see but muslim inscriptions just painted on the walls and inside of the dome. This is because the Muslim faith does not permit any human images to be shown in their mosques. I should have mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph that I was quite interested in our passage through the historic Dardanelles. We had a very good guide on the Jason and she gave a talk as we passed through the strait which she opened by saying that the British loss of the peninsula to the Turks in World War I "cost Winston Churchill his job as first Lord of the Admiralty!" Seeing the monument raised on the high ground ashore commemorating the loss of 30,000 British and French soldiers piqued my interest and I have since read a couple of books dealing with the disasters of that campaign. The only positive thing to come of it , they say, is that the British Army took the lessons to heart suffered there in their landing of troops from ships to shore and used these lessons for success on D-day's invasion of Normandy in World War II!
     While on the ship we toured a number of interesting islands in the Aegean, including the island of Thiera. We were fascinated by the fact that all that remains is a crescent of land after a huge volcanic eruption in the 1400's blew an estimated 20 cubic miles of the mountain into the atmosphere, leaving the crater filled by the sea. It is said that the dust thrown into the atmosphere so reduced the sun's intensity through much of the world as to noticeably reduce the temperature for several years. We rode by donkey up the trail on the inner flank of the remaining portion of the island and had a very pleasant evening meal served on the patio of one of those lovely white buildings overlooking the vast crater. We got a kick out of being served by the sweet young daughter whose family ran the place.
     The final thing which comes to mind concerning this trip is that we made a stop in Asia Minor to visit the ruins of the city of Ephesus. The ruins here are partially restored and were the most complete of any ancient site that we visited. Some of the streets are still open and many buildings identified. The classic open air semicircular stadium dating from Roman times is in particularly good repair. It is built into the hillside and one can hear a voice from the central stage easily, even in the far up back rows of the bleachers! From a religious point of view, we were shown a rock overlooking a square where Saint Paul is said to have delivered his sermon on his historic visit here. It is also claimed by some that the remains of Mary, the mother of Jesus are buried in a village not far from Ephesus.

19.5,  A GREAT TRIP TO SPAIN
     This trip, which occurred in 1976 was in part another of our trips exploring our western heritage, Spanish explorers and gold seekers having had so much to do with the early development of both North and South America. This included sea trips made up parts of the coast of our own British Columbia where geographic Spanish names such as the Jan de Fuca strait and Saturna, Texada, Cortez and Sonora islands exist.
     We flew to Malaga on the Mediterreanian and stayed in an hotel close to the beach at Torremolinas for our first week. However, it was in April and there was only about one day where it was warm enough to swim. Aside from that we enjoyed the cheap wine sitting outdoors in the sun and roaming around the area with its interesting streets and large number of European tourists who come there in the winter. In the Tapis bars one could get a small tumbler of wine for about 20 cents Canadian with some small fried seafood for an additional 50 cents. Some of the bars had sawdust floors with several spigotted barrels of the various wines available stacked against the wall. As rum was also cheaply available in the grocery stores we reached the conclusion that liquor in all its formas must be considered as a necessity of life in Spain and therefore not taxed.
     We next took a bus tour and visited Seville, Madrid, Grenada and Cordoba.  Seville has many wonderful older buildings still in use and you can ride about in a horse drawn carriage. However, its lovely tree lined streets are now overloaded with cars, which greatly spoils the effect the city would otherwise have. The car also overcrowds the highways, and we ended up in a 20 mile long traffic jam as we approached Madrid. The market square in the centre of the city  was lined with interesting architecture. We saw a flamenco dance concert with its lively music and visited the bull ring but saw no bullfight. They say that capitalism in Europe only began when the Spaniards returned from the Americas with huge stores of looted gold and this is how they were able to build so many fine buildings and develop a life style to go with them. Part of this lifestyle was their wonderful contributions to both classical and modern art. An amazing collection of the art is to be found in the Prado, which is the main museum and art gallery in Madrid. The particular painting which impressed us most was that of "Las Meninas". (the Children) by Velasquez (see photo). This canvas included a mirror showing the artist painting it and all combines to give the picture a very special appearance of depth and dimension which is hard to explain. The guide who accompanied us in the Prado was very good and he spoke with a cute Spanish lisp so that Velasquez came out as Velathquez!
     We were especially fascinated with Grenada, particularly its flavor from the 700 odd years it was under the control of the Moors from Africa. Control only returned to Christianity during the reign of Isabella and Philip. Isabella had a lot to do with our western culture when she helped finance Columbus' voyages around 1492. One of the most striking buildings in Grenada is the Alamhbra which sits high on a cliff overlooking the city and possesses a lovely outdoor garden with a pool and carved lions spewing water from their mouths. The Moors had a special reverence for water because it was so scarce in North Africa, from whence they had originally come! We did a ferry trip over to Tangier and savored its dryness. The local Casbah or market was very interesting experience of seeing a typical shops and vendors for those parts of the world. The main thing I remember about Cordoba is a visit to a very large mosque with an impressive number of arches and decorated pillars supporting its upper floors. It gave an idea of some of the great works of Arabic architecture left by the Moors.

19.6, 100 YEARS OF HARRISON MILLING & GRAIN CO.
    In August, 1978 we went to Holmfield to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of  my grandfather Harrison's business enterprises in Manitoba. His first effort was a sawmill near Wakopa, then a grain elevator in Killarney and finally the flour mill and grain elevator in Holmfield. Bill Harrison, who is my Uncle Abe's son, recently rescued the remains of the lumber mill and donated it to a museum where it has been restored to operating condition. The Killarney elevator has been supplanted by a modern super grain elevator of the type built by the major grain companies and which is superceding most of the standard prairie "skyscrapers" once so familiar to all prairie dwellers. The Mill lasted the longest, only being closed in the year 2000. While still operable, it is, at present, standing idle in the shrunken village where it has been since the 1890's.
       However, to get back to the celebration in 1978 we had a great time. All of Grandad's children were there except for my Uncle Laurence, who died about 1968, and Aunt Mary, who died in the 1940's. Aunt Eva and Aunt Ruth were there as they still lived in grandma's house in Holmfield itself. Uncle Abe and his wife Amy also took an active part as they still lived there. Cousins Bill and Eric did most of the arranging including a dinner for the crowd at the local hall, followed by an old time country dance. My mother, Stella, was there, having been escorted there and back from Vancouver by my son Jim, who was at this time living on the ranch with Maria. Mum really enjoyed the affair to the extent where I had to talk her into leaving the dance early because we were afraid she would overdo it. As she was by this time living near my sister Mary in Langley and was showing signs of suffering from Alzheimer's, it would be her last visit to the home of her childhood; even I at this late date of writing  (2001) feel great pangs of nostalgia for the village of Holmfield and its Mill where I spent so many of my own happy boyhood holidays with my relatives! Other old friends met at the time were Aunt Hilda (laurence's wife), Alec Sillers, (hired man at the Mill) and David Jamieson, who had been my favorite playmate whenever I was in Holmfield as a boy. I had not seen him once since those halcyon days as our paths were widely separated by the war and our subsequent lives.

19.7, MOTHER MOVES TO THE WEST COAST
     At this point it is appropriate to report on my mother Stella's deciding to take up sister Mary and husband Jim's offer to move to the west coast. This took place in 1976 or 1977 when it had become apparent that it was not possible for her to live safely by herself in hers and dad's retirement cottage on 5th avenue. Earlier on, Mary had arranged for a lady to come in and help her part time, but Mum soon broke off the arrangement, saying as her reason that the lady smoked. This was before the second hand smoke syndrome was so much in the press. Maybe mum was ahead of her time in not wishing to have someone in her house who smoked! Anyway, Mary and Jim, bless their hearts, took the problem in hand and came to Rivers to take mum to the coast. By the time I arrived things were well in hand and with the help of local friends, such as Clara Roberts, much of the home's contents had been disposed of. I recall helping Jim take a load of the remnants of dad's tools, etc. to the nuisnace ground where we unceremoniously dumped it all. It was sad in a way, because dad had been forced to be so frugal that he even kept tin cigarette boxes full of old nails that he had taken out of scrap boxcar wood which he had gotten free for from the railway for firewood. One has to think of the faithful parenthood of the man and his wife who lived most of their married life in such frugality so as to enable we children to be kept well fed, safe and warm! Even to-day I never cease to give thanks for my parents and their part in giving me such a wonderful childhood in conditions which would almost be regarded as poverty to-day!!
     The evening before the furniture was moved out, Alec White came over with his fiddle and played a great selection of old songs, including of course requests by mum for her favorites. It was a lovely gesture by Alec, who had devoted his whole life to making music and sharing it in Rivers, teaching violin and playing at concerts and old time dances galore. The next day we had a visit from Aunt Eva and two of her children, namely Merton and Enid who came over to say farewell. The house was sold to Melville Harvey and his wife Birdie, who decided to move to mum's cottage while vacating a larger home they had raised their family in over on 3rd avenue.  The next day, we departed for Winnipeg by car, knowing that we now had no home in Rivers. We were quiet, but sad; I asked Jim to stop the car on the hill just east of the highway bridge over the Little Saskatchewan and I got out to take a last look at my roots. I couldn't see the house from there, but the skyline of the railway smokestack and the grain elevator were enough to evoke a flood of nostalgia for the great little town where we had been raised in a most happy family childhood! Mary and Jim returned to the coast with mother and I returned to Montreal. Mary, bless her heart again, salvaged dad's old dining set armchair and gave it to me in 1988, when Fran and I moved to South Surrey. As I type this it is sitting at my desk beside the computer station and I use it regularly with pride and pleasure as a memento to my parents who with a minimum of this world's goods did so much for us all!

19.8, GETTING TO KNOW SAN DIEGO
     San Diego is a very lovely U.S. city which we have visited a number of times. The main reason for making multiple visits there is the fact that Fran's sister Tookie and her husband lived there until some time after her husband, Al Deveau died in 1990.  Our first visit was in 1978. We were able to enjoy walking on the shore and going out to the point and getting to know Tookie and Al and daughter Patricia, (Patty) who was still living at home. I enjoyed spending time with Al who walked with me on the wharf where we were able to visit the square rigger sailing ship "Star of India" which is kept in top condition. Al himself had some experience with boats because his dad operated a boat-building yard in Meteghan, Nova Scotia. That yard had built a replica of the ship used in the Hollywood movie, Mutiny on the Bounty. Also, Al told me he had made a long sea journey from Meteghan to help deliver a boat to a customer on the west coast of Mexico when he was less than 20 years old. The hired Captain was incompetent, so Al had a hard time of it, getting very little sleep enroute. In San Diego Al worked on a regular job doing specialized work on defense projects. At the time he retired he was Assistant Foreman in the shop so he gave me an escorted tour. One very interesting thing they were working on was an electric gun for military use!
     One of San Diego's outstanding features is its Zoos and Aquarium. The Zoo in the city is like a traditional zoo would be but the other wild life place outside the city is really something special. It has a large wide open space where herds of wild animals from Africa, Asia and other exotic places are allowed to roam in their segment of the park. Cars and pedestrians are not permitted to enter, but the whole perimeter is surrounded by a circular electric tramway which runs quietly and slowly so as not to disturb the animals yet get a good view of them in their natural habitat. The aquarium is also quite spectacular in that it not only has performing seals but performing orca whales which jump out of the water on cue and land so as to spash some onto the spectators seated in the bleachers.
     While the girls especially enjoyed shopping in the unique multi-story partly outdoor mall downtown, I preferred to spend time going out to visit Dick Mayer, who makes replicas of Lionel and American Flyer classic pre-war trains in Escondido. He is a retired tool and die man who builds them in what looks like a recycled chicken house!  He does very good work and I have been able to get an electric locomotive and a baggage car to go with the American Flyer "President's Special" coaches which I had picked up earlier at the train show in York, Pennsylvania. (See Photo). Also on various trips we have made to San Diego have been able to pick up various other items for my toy train collection from two or three very good hobby shops which exist in San Diego itself.
     Concerning real trains, the Santa Fe railway station is still much used and is a classical southwestern mission style building constructed about 1930. Most of the use now is for rail commuters on the service that exists between San Diego and Los Angeles, where there is quite a population at many towns in between as well as various beaches and the race track. The remarkable thing to me is that they now (2001) operate about nine commuter trains per day in each direction on what is single track. They have located the passing tracks precisely so that schedules can be operated with minimum delay for meets! In addition, using other available trackage going in other directions, they have started up a very good light rail operation. It is electrified and has grown over the past 20 years. The "trams" are given right-of-way at downtown intersections under control of the driver. While it does not yet handle as many passengers as Vancouvers Sky Train, it is an excellent demonstration of what can be done to serve a variety of routes using old railway rights-of-way as much as possible. This is handled in part by having the main line railway do its freight switching after the last tram has operated at night.
     On one occasion we drove all the way from Vancouver to San Diego, a most interesting trip including driving the Big Sur scenic route, (it was Fran's turn to drive, and the heights and unprotected sharp curves scared the wits out of her)! We did some wine sampling in the Napa Valley. We also drove on one occasion for a day at Disneyland near Annaheim and to the casino at Laughlin, Nevada.  Fran and I are not much into gambling so we limit ourselves to blowing 50 bucks. We prefer playing the poker machines as you get more play for your money and there is some element of skill whereas the slot machines are best described as "one armed bandits"! During the time we were there, Al and I visitied the large hydro-electric dam and generating station near the town. I enjoyed being able to explain what I knew of it from my memories of visiting hydro-electric plnts on the Winnipeg River while I was working for the Manitoba Power Commission.
     On another occasion we took the Amtrak train from Seattle to LosAngeles. This train is called the "Coast Starlight" but it covers much of southern California in daytime, where you can see the lovely coastal towns and about 100 miles of beaches with surfers on them. On the train itself we had a bedroom in a lovely double decker sleeper. The service is good with coffee delivered with your morning wakeup and good meals in the diner. This train has proven to be one of Amtral's best and it has become a good tourist draw as well as serving local passengers from the communities on line. It has become the flagship train of Amtrak service in the West!
     One of our key visits was in April, 1980, when we flew down for Patty's wedding to Matt Lux. It was very nice church wedding attended by most members of Matt's family, including his mother who lives in Philadelphia. Matt works as a financial advisor and Patty has kept at her job as a Flight Attendant for Delta Airlines. At some point they moved to Arlington, near Dallas, Texas, where they now (2001) live with their two children in a very nice house with a pool. Some years after Al's death Tookie also moved to Dallas, so we have not had any recent visits to SanDiego. However, Fran's niece, Janet Toomey and her husband Kenn Mount, moved to SanDiego last year. Kenn is working in a computer related company there while Janet just recently gave birth to a robust baby boy, whom they have named Jackson. This growing family may give Fran and I an excuse to again visit San Diego, our favorite U.S. city!

19.9,  WALKER DEVELOPMENTS IN WINNIPEG
     After Anne's death we have continued to visit Winnipeg on our Manitoba trips so as to keep in touch with Anne's family. George and Winnifred still live there in their house on Kilmer Avenue though they are now (2001) both retired. When Fran ands I visited in 1980 we were still able to keep touch with George senior, who was by this time living in a home at Middlechurch. He had left his Thunderbird apartment on Portage Avenue at some point after his companion, Anne Fewing, had died. They never married, but met and lived happily in adjacent apartments some time after Anne's mother, Ella had passed away. George and Nan both came when Anne died and were most supportive to me and Jim during our bereavement.
Also, Fran and I enjoyed knowing Nan, whose husband had died and she had worked as a civil servant for the Manitoba government. She would have lost her own and her husband's pension if they had married. As it was, they enjoyed each other's company for over 10 years, travelling together to Indio or Palm Springs California each winter.
     George junior started out as an electrical engineer for Westinghouse, but later shifted to the financial field. In his later years he worked as a broker for James Richardson and Sons, the premier financial house in Manitoba. Two of their sons, Philip and Stephen live in Calgary and the youngest is still in Winnipeg working as a Stationary Engineer for Canada Packers. Fran and I always enjoy our visits with George and Winnie, who like ourselves have strong views on a host of subjects. In particular, we like to get them going on the federal liberal government which they have staunchly supported for years! They would be horrified to learn that we voted Conservative in the last (2000) election and we'll have to argue that out when we next get to see them. Winnie, like Frances likes to direct George while he's driving. I think he has a shorter fuse than I do as on one occasion when he was confused by Winnie's instructions, he stopped dead in the middle of a busy intersection and said, "woman, will you please make up your mind", all this going on while other cars around us stopped with much honking of horns!
     George senior lived to be 90 and is buried with his wife Ella in the Greenwood? cemetery facing on Portage Ave..He was one of the old school and lived a fairly disciplined life both in respect of  work at the bank and leisure. He was always good to me, though I know he regretted Anne and I leaving Winnipeg for Montreal when I decided to leave the Power Comission and go to work with the railway.

19.10, CARRIBBEAN CAPERS
     During my working years and subsequently, Fran and I have made trips to the southern waters. I have already dealt with my introduction to Barbadoes, which was with Fran on our honeymoon. (She had been there once before with some of her nursing friends and liked it so well she chose it for our honeymoon). Since then we have been back twice, once while stopping there for a day on a carribbean cruise (where we spent most of the time on the beach and had lunch at Tamarind Cove, our honeymoon destination.) The other was a full two week stay at Tamarind in the 1990's. On this trip we noticed the resort was still quite active, but quite changed with the addition of more buildings, etc.. Also, the old Tamarind tree with its sheltered outdoor bar was gone, destroying some of the nostalgic flavor which we were seeking there! Another example I suppose of the old adage, 'you can't go back again'! Nevertheless, the Barbadoes still remains as one of our favorite resorts.
     On the Carribbean cruise we actually took the Holland America line's MV Noordam from San Diego through the Panaman canal and visited a number of the islands, ending up in New Orleans. One highlight was the day we stopped at Antigua? where we were able to go out on a race between two sailing ships which had in the past represented Canada in the famous America cup races! It was quite exciting ot heel over into the tropical sea breeze while travelling at speeds of over 17 knots! Ever since the glory days of Sir Thomas Lipton's "Shamrocks" in the l930's I've been fascinated with the America cup races. The U.S. boats always won the race until quite recent times. I believe New Zealand was the first to wrest the trophy away from the Americans, sometime in the 1980's.
     Another highlight was a visit to the old Spanish city of Cartagena in Columbia. It was the centre of collection and shipping of the gold treasures wrested from South America in the days of the Spanish main. Our guide regaled us with dramatic stories of the piracy and othr struggles which ensued with the gold ships sailing forth to try to avoid the buccaneers (including British warships) in order to get to Spain safely! Even the famous Admiral Drake was heavily involved in these struggles, and several attempts were made to capture Cartagena and capture the gold trade at its source. While on one of these ventures Drake was able to land with an amed force and capture much of the city, he was repelled in an attempt to capture the rocky hill where the Spaniards had their citadel and was forced to give up the idea of permanently capturing Cartagena! The city itself is still quite beautful with many fine stone residences and other structures along its streets. Because of the gold trade, many in the city prospered and they were able to construct much architecture which delights the eye even to this day!
      On the way down the coast from SanDiego we visited several places in Mexico. Cabot San Lucas, with its clever pelican population ws a quaint place, not too large. The pelicans were smart enough to ride out on the tour boat to where the fishing was good and ride back on the next boat when they were full! Mazatlan was somewhat interesting, but we thought our tour driver was more concerned with selling us a time-share condominium rather than telling us more about the history of the place, its people and its economy aside from tourism. Acapulco, which in our lifetime has grown from a place first found by the beat generation to become a major tourist city of about two million; unfortunately, at this size it has lost a lot of its former charm as an escape from regular North American life and climate.
     Our transit of the Panama Canal was particularly interesting to me, as I still vividly recall going through it on the destroyer HMCS Algonquin at the end of the war when we were on our way up to Esquimalt to pay off the ship. The essentials of the canal are still the same as they were then, except that the railway has been rebuilt and much additional earth has been removed to widen or straighten parts of the passage. I was surprised to see that such work is still going on. Since making the trip I have been able to read an excellent book giving the whole history of the engineering and the political ramifications of the takeover from the French by the Americans. One American contribution which caused me some pleasure was that they in those days never thought about moving dirt by truck, but made use of an extensive rail system with dozens of locomotives and hundreds of cars to move millions of tons of material excavated over a period of years. It also delighted me that great credit was given by the author to the fact that the rail operations were controlled by practical yardmasters and other railwaymen imported from large railways in the U.S.!
     In summary we enjoyed the whole cruise greatly, but for me it had a flip side in which I captured a sinus infection on the ship which I have note yet completely overcome to this day (2001). Unfortunatedly it was caused in part by lack of sleep. As we were unable to get early seating for dinner we would then catch the late show aboard and not get to bed until midnight while having to rise at 0530 to have breakfast and catch the 0700 tenders which would take us to the attracton of the day. The other factor was that the air in the ship is largely recirculated to save money by not having to air-condition fresh air from outside from a temperature over 30 degrees down to about 19 in the ship. I blameAmerican tourists who believe that because some air-conditioning is good more must be better, hence the unrealistic low interior temperature! The bad news for me and I'm sure, many others is that "bugs" from whoever has them on the ship are fully recycled and picked up by other passengers. While suffering during the three days spent in New Orleans, we did enjoy the old French Quarter, the waterfront and city old-fashioned streetcar trips and a river voyage on a typical old Mississippi paddle wheeler, complete with steam propulsion and a genuine steam calliope for music!
     While not truly a Caribbean island we did visit Bermuda on a holiday trip in April, 1982 and its similar enough to the Caribbean to be included in this chapter. Both Fran and I had visited Bermuda once before, I while in the Navy (as reported in Chapter 8.5 and Fran on a trip some time before we were married. On this trip we stayed in a large, modern hotel, which was very nice but lacked the charm of smaller places one usually associated with Bermuda. It has the most beautiful sea views and shore sites, with lovely cottage homes scattered throughout, all painted in white, pink or blue colors, as attested by the small painting still hanging on our bedroom wall. However, we discovered, that thanks to the automobile, the island had lost a lot of its charm going back to the days when one travelled by horse and buggy or by bicycle. We saw many bikes laying around rusting or trashed in the bush while the narrow roads were no longer safe to walk upon because of the dangerous density of auto traffic. It is so bad, that the authorities have passed laws limiting the number of  permanent residents and the number of licensed autos!
     Responding to my natural nostalgia for what had existed when I was there in 1945, we went looking for the shore establishment then called HMCS Somers Isles. I recalled the main building and the barracks where Stan Clay and I had slept but we could not find a trace of them. While it is true that one could not gain access to all of the shore places, it just seemed they had disappeared. Moreover, no-one whom we asked had the slightest recollection of there ever having been a Canadian shore base during the war. What was there and which we enjoyed visiting was the remains of the old British Navy base, which was something big in its heyday. It is retained only as a tourist attraction, with nothing but the old main building used as a museum with some remains of old fortification walls. The bones of the past were represented in the courtyard by a couple of huge battleship spare anchors no longer required for even battleships are a thing of the past!
19.10, FRAN'S AUNT NELL AND OUR TRIPS TO BOSTON
     For many years while we lived in Montreal it was possible for us to make a trip by car to Boston, principally to visit her Aunt Nell Rimmer; she was an older sister of Fran's father. Nell had been living there since about the end of World War I. Nell's husband George, was dead before I got to go to Boston. He was a steward on English ships during the war and met and married Nell in Boston. Fran and Nell and George became acquainted years before we were married as Fran had spent some months in Boston in the 1960's taking a nursing course at one of Boston's hospitals. Fran was a special favorite of Nan's who had never had any children of her own so she was always glad to see us when we visited her in Boston. Initially Nell had questioned Fran's wisdom in getting married to me at the age of 45 but as we continued to visit and she got to know me I like to think that she felt Fran's marriage was o.k.! George was well versed in all things connected with food to the extent where he was called up to go to some of the resort places in Florida to help cater for many well off Americans who spent time there during the winter. Nell herself was no stranger to food services as she had worked most of her active life as a top waitress in some of Boston's better restaurants. She ended her career as waitress at the prestigious Harvard Univerity Club where she got to know many of the city's elite. I still have a souvenir she gave me, a shot glass with the Harvard Club crest on it, She introduced us to some nice eating places in Boston such as Anthony's Pier 9, where we could always get a good fill of seafood. She was also able to tell us of many of the historic places to visit in the older parts of Boston dating back well before the American Revolution. Fran and I also drove around on our own, but found it very easy to get lost in the hodge-podge of poorly-marked streets existing in that city. I recall one occasion when we were lost but finally spotted a policeman. He proved to be an archtypical speciman of the friendly" Irish Cop" of Boston; I believe he still had traces of an Irish brogue as he kindly straightened out our directions and sent us on our way!
     The other main contact we had in Boston was Charlie and Camilla Glover who were also friends of Fran's from away back, Camilla and Fran having been members of the same nursing class at the Halifax Infirmary during the war. George was also a sailor, having served in the U.S. Navy. Camilla, I believe was originally from Havre Boucher, N.S. and we had three members of that family working in the Railway. Camilla and Charlie were great to know and to visit; they liked to get a case of beer on Saturday night and sit around the kitchen table consuming it with friends and telling stories!
      Now, (2001) we are further than ever from Boston and all we knew, save Camilla, are dead. Sadly, Aunt Nell died while Fran and I were in India and so were not able to attend her funeral. Nell had left some money for Fran to help with the arrangements so Fran sent the money to another cousin, Elizabeth who also lived in Boston and who looked after the funeral arrangements. We were able to visit Charlie and Camilla once since returning from India and so visited Nell's grave. Now Elizabeth is dead as is Charlie Glover; Camilla is in poor health in a home.

19.11, TRIP TO MYRTLE BEACH AND "STEAMTOWN"
     Myrtle Beach in North Carolina has always been a favorite destination for Montrealers so we decided to try it in Seprember, 1983. Sophie Collens, my secretary had visited it several times before and rcommended a place for us to stay. It proved to be a nice comfortable place on the beach. It was only two or three stories, whereas a good many of the waterfront properties in the vicinity had been taken over by modern high rises. The lady who owned it was refusing to sell her place which she had lived in herself and operated fror many years. This was even though the development company was offering a good price plus promising her a free penthouse in the new structure.
      Fran and I really enjoyed walking the beach and visting the different resorts and restaurants along the shore. There was also a good deal of bird life such as sand pipers and pelicans; the latter loved to fly up and down and then plunge with folded wings to snatch some unsuspecting small fish from the water! It was one of the best shore holidays Fran and I have ever had. While we were driving down to Myrtle Beach Fran humoured my wanting to stop at "Steamtown" in Vermont, this being a large collection of steam locomotives. This collection was primarily the dream of one man, a Mr. J. Nelson Blount, who had the money and the foresight to assemble and preserve a representative collection of the various North American steam types before they were all scrapped.  In particular I wanted to see the the Union Pacific's 4-8-8-4 "Big Boy", so called, because it is generally accepted to be the largest steam locomotive to be built anywhere! It's immensity can be seen from the photo. It was interesting to confirm that it draws world wide interest, because on the day we visited there was also a keen German tourist looking the engine over. In addition I was very much pleased to see a 4-6-2 (5000 Pacific series) and a 2-8-2 (3300 Mikado) series along with C.P.R. Pacific no.1201 still alive for steam excursions. The 3300 series engine is probably one of the many of this class which operated through my hometown of  Rivers during my boyhood. It is quite possible I was aboard her cab in those dear byegone days when I rode with hostler Jack Lindsay and his helper George Kervanki as we rode around the servicing tracks following a road haul freight job from Winnipeg! A few months after we were there the collection was moved to better quarters at Scranton, Pennsylvania where they were able to take over the old steam backshops used by the Erie Railroad. Perhaps once more before I die, I'll be able to visit my steam dreams there as well as those in the Canadian Railway Historical collection in Delson, (near Montreal) and the National Museum in Ottawa!

19.12, A HOLIDAY VISIT TO KENTVILLE AND BRIDGEWATER, N.S.
     From the time we were married in 1972 until the death of Fran's parents we made at least one trip to the maritimes to see them, often going during the Christmas holiday season when my office activity was at a low ebb. It's worth mentioning that we enjoyed the trip down because we could get a bedroom on the Ocean Limited out of Montreal, then connect with the Dayliner at Halifax to get to Kentville. Alternatively, we could catch the Atlantic Limited from Monteal to Saint John, have a visit there with Fran's brother, Don, and catch the ferry to Digby. Then from there we could get the Dayliner to Kentville. The time beween connections at Digby often gave us the opportunity to have a very good lunch of scallops or other sea food at a lovely restaurant which faced on the main street but looked over Digby harbor from the rear. We always rememember seeing an elderly fisherman on the wharf one day who had a bag of raw scallops which he was eating like chocolates!
     One of the most memorable of these visits was at Christmas 1979. We first went to Kentville where we stayed with Fran's mum and dad. and we had a great Christmas dinner with them.  Their grandchildren, John, Mark and Janet came over from Bridgewater and we saw many of Fran's friends such as Helen Morse, Lorna and Ralph Evans. We had a particularly good New Year's eve celebration whith both Bun and Mum in good cheer. Fran and I had bought some noise makers and funny hats; partly to our surprise, these proved to be a big hit. Fran's mum in particular really livened up and I felt it reinforced her feeling that Fran being married to me was not such a bad thing after all! (See photos). In addition we enjoyed walking around Kentville in the snow. As the shire town it is an intresting place and Fran liked to walk me around the business section which she knew so well so we could look at all the shops. She also enjoyed seeing the houses where friends of hers lived or had lived in earlier days. Leaving Kentville we drove over to Bridgewater to visit Ray and Lucene whom we always enjoy. Ray at that time taught at the local high school and Lucene started into selling real estate. There is no doubt that I will be writing further in the future about Maritime adventures still to come!

19.13, DEATH OF FRANCIS "BUN" TOOMEY
     As Fran's father, "Bun", grew older he had been assailed by different problems which required various remedies specified to some extent by different doctors. At some point his condition became too difficult for Mum Toomey to manage at home and he was transferred to an available bed in a rest home at Berwick. Fran and I visited him there about 1980 and he was upset at the quality of the other "inmates" some of whom were mentally challenged. Some of the women would bother him to the extent of feeling his face and taking off his glasses, he had to go into a room with a dutch door they could not open, in order that they could not get at him. There were other forms of strange aberrant behaviour obvious to us. Poor "Bun" just wailed to us, "If you don't get me out of here I'm going to be just like them"! Anyway, Fran and Mum talked it over and got him checked by another doctor. The first thing this man did was to cancel all the pills that Bun was taking, and lo and behold, that eliminated most of Bun's own problems!  The drugs obviously had side effects which worked on each other to produce unwanted reults. Mum and the authorities then moved him to a more regular type of rest home called Palmetters which was located in nice grounds on the outskirts of Kentville. Here he lived until the following year when he passed away.
     Fran and I went down for the funeral and joined the rest of the family for the service held in St. Joseph's catholic church where the family had worshipped for most of their married life. As the cortege proceeded to the burial grounds it chanced to pass parallel to the tracks of the Dominion Atlantic Railway which Bun had served as trainman, freight and passenger conductor for most of his working life. Along came the afternoon passenger dayliner and the crew, knowing that he was being buried that day, saluted the hearse with two mournful toots from the whistle, surely a fitting tribute to their erstwhile workmate who had given so much to the railway during his many years in the line of duty!!